Former LSU player Warren Morris never tires of reliving the College World Series dream

The fantasy has played out countless times, in batting practice, in playground games, in day dreams.

Just about anyone who has picked up a baseball bat has likely envisioned the scenario: bottom of the ninth inning, two outs, runners on base and a championship on the line. A hero steps to the plate and blasts a towering shot to deliver the high school state title, the NCAA championship, the World Series.

Only a few have ever come close to the dream scenario -- Joe Carter and Bill Mazeroski delivered World Series-winning home runs in 1993 and 1960.

But as the College World Series prepares to draw to a close this week, many thoughts return to the most famous last-gasp winners in NCAA history -- LSU and Warren Morris.

Fifteen years ago this month, Morris launched himself into baseball lore when he lifted LSU to its third national championship with the most famous home run in College World Series history.

"That was an exceptional -- well, a once in a lifetime event," said former LSU coach Skip Bertman.

The moment came in the championship game of the 1996 College World Series. LSU and Miami breezed into the final round without losing a game, and each program was poised to win its third national championship.

"It seems like this time of year people talk about it more, which is always good with me," Morris said. "I like to talk about good things a lot better than if we were talking about a ball rolling through my legs."

LSU led 3-2 before sloppy play gave Miami a 7-3 advantage. The Tigers fought back to tie the score at 7. In the top of the ninth inning, Miami's standout shortstop, Alex Cora knocked an RBI single to score what looked like the winning run.

If the Tigers were to make a comeback, it would have to be against Miami All-American closer Robbie Morrison. Designated hitter Brad Wilson, previously 0-for-15 at the College World Series, opened the inning with a double down the third-base line. Wilson went on to provide the tying run, but Bertman remains amazed the play happened at all.

"It looked like Brad had an easy double, but the kid in left field made just an incredible throw," he said. "I'm just relieved the umpire called him safe, because it could have looked from his angle like the ball got there first."

A ground ball fielder's choice advanced Wilson to third base, and Morrison struck out Tigers' catcher Tim Lanier. The brought Morris up with two outs and the tying run 90 feet away.

"Vividly is the right word -- I can still remember going from the on deck circle," Morris said. "Tim Lanier, who to me should have been the MVP of that World Series, struck out on a tough pitch. I can still remember, he said 'pick me up' -- kind of our slogan meaning if you don't get it done one of your teammates will."

Morris' story deviates, just slightly, from the popular fantasy in one crucial aspect. While children around the country may typically hit their fictional winning homers with a 3-2 count, Morris crushed the first pitch he saw.

"All I was thinking is, 'I'm going to go into this aggressive,' which is probably why I hit the first pitch," he said. "More than anything it was good for me that is was the first pitch, because I didn't have a lot of time to think about it."

Morris didn't have much time to react to the pitch. His coach, teammates and the thousands in attendance weren't given much notice that the game had ended. As Morris caught it low in the strike zone, the ball took a fast, low-flying trajectory toward the right field stands of Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium before disappearing just a few feet into the crowd.

"I was as shocked as anybody," Morris said. "When the ball goes over the fence, the first clue I had is our first base coach Daniel Tomlin jumps 3 feet off the ground ... I headed toward second, and that's when I see the Miami players on the ground, and that's when it kind of clicks in."

From his view in the dugout, Bertman said he was anticipating a tie game rather than a third championship.

"My first thought was, 'OK the game is going to be tied,' and then it was 'Whoa, it went out.' It was that fast," he said.

From the stands on the third base line, LSU fan Chris Guillot said the mood went from anticipation to chaos. Guillot has attended every LSU College World Series appearance since 1989, but said Morris' shot has a special place.

"I thought it was a line shot and it was going to hit the wall, and then it went over," he said. "I was in the middle section, and I landed on top of the dugout because everybody kept jumping around. It was unreal."

The hit is the lone championship-winning walk-off homer in the College World Series.

But that's not the remarkable memory for Bertman, who was quick to point out that Morris' moment wasn't just his first home run of the season but one of the first days of the year he'd felt comfortable swinging a bat.

"He had a hamate fracture -- it's a small bone in your wrist -- that doesn't allow you to swing the bat," Bertman said.

Morris missed 42 games that season, making his return to the team at the start of the postseason. The first time he felt comfortable swinging a bat was the day the Tigers were to face Miami.

"It's better than any Cinderella storybook ending I could have written," Morris said. "I just feel proud to have some exclamation mark on that season, but it wasn't Warren Morris winning the championship -- it was LSU most of the year, and mainly without me."

Morris, now 37, enjoyed a stint in Major League Baseball after being selected in the fifth round of that summer's draft. He now works as a banker and is a father in his hometown of Alexandria.

The College World Series has moved to a new stadium and new champions have been crowned 15 years since the home run. But Morris said people, both LSU fans and neutrals, never tire of retelling their memories of his title-clinching homer -- and he never tires of hearing them.

"I'm still just flattered and very honored that 15 years after the fact people are still coming up and wanting to tell me where they were ," he said. "What part of the interstate they were listening to it on the radio, or the ceiling fan they jumped up and hit their hand on, or the wedding reception where they were jumping around when it was on TV ... I love hearing the stories, and I've heard bunches of them."